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General License Conditions

Licensing terms and conditions of use for online services of Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH

 These terms govern the rights and obligations of users and customers of online services provided by Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH. (November 2022)

1. Usage rights for anybody

Access to the research tools at www.quotus.org and those at all journals with their specific subdomains is free of charge to anybody. Users have the right to:

Use all search and research tools;

Read and print out for personal use any content that is freely available;

Use the tools for recommending content and publications via email or social networks.

Tools for the recommendation of content and publications must not be used to send out mass emails. They must either not be used to send out message, which are not related to the content on Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH websites.

2. Open Access Publication

Open Access publications are freely accessible to everyone in full text. To protect the copyright, our OA publications use the Creative-Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives license (CC BY-NC-ND). This means that readers may copy, distribute and transmit the work:

  • If the license is mentioned and a link to the license is provided
  • If the name of the author and right holders is mentioned
  • If the work is used only for non-commercial purposes.
  • If the work is not edited, modified or otherwise altered.

Further information is available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/.

When using and distributing our texts, please be sure to refer to the DOI of the respective publication.

3. Usage rights for individual and institutional customers

Individual customers, who paid an applicable fee, may use the full text according to the license they obtained. These usage rights are for the individual customer, they cannot be transferred.

Individual customers are entitled to:

  • Read licensed content on the screen;
  • Store single chapters and articles in the computer cache;
  • Store single chapters and articles permanently - to an extent congruent with individual academic work;
  • Print out single chapters and articles - to an extent congruent with individual academic work;
  • If single articles have been acquired, the PDF files are available for download for two days. During this time, the article should be downloaded and stored permanently by the customer. After two days download of the file will no longer be available.

 4. Rights of institutional customers

Institutional customers are those, who acquire usage rights for their members of staff, patrons or multiple users. Especially:

  • Libraries
  • Public or cultural institutions with multiple members of staff
  • Corporations with multiple members of staff

Licensed rights for institutional customers refer to one geographical site only. If users shall access the content from more than one geographical site, this has to be agreed with Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH explicitly.

Legitimate users include:

  • Members of faculty and staff of the acquiring institution, university, library, corporation etc.
  • Walk-in visitors of the library premises – while they are at the library
  • Students currently enrolled at the university

Alumni, i.e. previous students or faculty members, do not count as authorized users of an institution. If an institution wishes to include alumni as authorized users, this can be arranged based on an individual agreement with the publisher. Please contact us directly.

Usage rights for licensed material includes:

  • Reading content on screen;
  • Download single chapters and articles to the computer cache;
  • Storing single chapters and articles to an extent congruent with individual academic and research activities;
  • Print out single chapters and articles - to an extent congruent with individual academic and research activities;
  • Concurrent usage of the same items by different users of the same institution is possible without limitation.

5. Administrative rights for institutional customers

Institutional customers may appoint one or more administrators who have specific rights. Administrators can download usage statistics for their institution.Therefor the institutional contact person have to register on: https://journals.winter-verlag.de/register/

6. Authentication

Individual and institutional customers are registered in a database to provide access to the platform. Users are authenticated by means of:

  • Username/password (for individual subscribers)
  • IP address (for institutions and their members)
  • Institutions may provide remote access for their patrons using means like VPN (virtual private network) or EZproxy.

 7. Integrity of publications on www.winter-verlag.de

All publications on the websites of Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH are governed by copyright laws. It is not allowed to change content in any form. It is especially not allowed to delete, change or suppress:

  • Author or editor names
  • Copyright declarations or symbols
  • Logos, brand signs or other means of identification
  • Legal disclaimers or reservations

 8. Unauthorized dissemination of content

It is not allowed to disseminate content in printed or electronic format - either offline or online.

Legal rights within the regulations of German Urheberrechtsgesetz Section 6 shall not be affected by these rules. Especially the right to use quotation shall not be affected by these rules.

9. Systematic downloads

It is not allowed to download repeatedly and systematically larger parts of the publications provided by Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH. It is especially not allowed to establish an archive of these publications, in order to bypass access via the Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH websites.

If a specific research project requires systematic download or crawling through Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH content, we will usually allow this as an exception and will support this technically. Please contact us directly.

10. Long Term Preservation

The Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH will grant with ending of the contract to the licensee if requested continuously access to PDF files of those contents which have appeared during the contract term and were subscribed and were paid. Besides, the Universitätsverlag  Winter  GmbH can allow after own choice the access to the respective PDF files, while alternatively

  • A systematic download of the PDF files is permitted in an electronic archive of the licensee;
  • To the licensee an individual copy of the PDF files on a data carrier (e.g., CD-ROM or DVD) is made available.

 11. Obligation to inform library patrons

The acquiring institution is obliged to inform their patrons and users about these terms and conditions of use.

The customer is obliged to keep up to date and accurate all pieces of information which are required for full execution of the contract. This refers especially to IP addresses, email addresses and invoicing addresses. If the customer does not follow this obligation - especially with respect to authentication details Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH is not obliged to provide access to the content.

Customer is obliged to keep access details and passwords confidential, and to use reasonable measures to secure unauthorized access by third parties. In case of lost access details or passwords, Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH is to be informed immediately. In this case Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH retains the right to terminate access temporarily, while new credentials are issued.

12. Technical Requirements

Access is provided through the internet. Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH applies computers, servers and lines with appropriate capacity and bandwidth. Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH does not accept responsibility for data transfer beyond their technical infrastructure. Especially no responsibility is accepted for lines into customer's premises or and computer equipment at customer's premises.

In order to use Universitätsverlag Winter GmbH websites, a standard web browser and PDF reader software are required. The software is not included in the license.

13. Governing law and legal venue

All contracts and licenses are governed by the law of the Federal Republic of Germany, with exclusion of the UN Sales Law. Legal venue is Heidelberg – if the customer is not a private customer.

Should any of the above clauses be unenforceable, this has no effect on the enforceability of the remaining clauses.